Matthew 9:37
The Harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.
Brasil is a country ripe for a great harvest of souls. People long for meaning and search it out their entire lives. Rather than turning to the churches, people turn to the streets, to alcohol, drugs, prostitution and partying. If only these people knew they would be welcomed with open arms inside the church.
There are many unfortunate things about churches in Brasil. Learning these faults and yet learning how to still love a very broken church has been a challenge. Some churches are very religious- women can only ever wear skirts below the knees, women can’t cut their hair, shave, use jewlery or makeup. These churches have a hard time welcoming in people accustomed to the more carnival-esque style of life in Brasil. Other churches put such an emphasis on money and prosperity that you have to pay to recieve prayer there. Many of those inside the church stay inside their churches and plant other churches with their own name on them right alongside other churches of different denominations and names.
Brasil does not need more churches. It needs people going out into the streets to find the prostitutes and show them love, to find the drug traffickers and love them out of this lucrative business. There is much need in Brasil, but the workers who actually go out to the streets are so very few.
This trip I have been mainly building relationships with people inside the churches, encouraging them to step outside their churches. Me and a couple of other crazy Americans, without knowing each other beforehand, took this summer to travel around Brasil, helping at some projects, building relationships with people, finding out where the greatest needs are, and calling out this generation of young Christians in Brasil to step out into their God-given destinies. The harvest here in Brasil will not be collected by foreigners, it will be harvested by Brasilians, by the kids who are now teenagers.
Here in Rio de Janeiro, there is much need, but no one to do the work. I was supposed to be helping at a project in a large favela (slum) where a lady had been working with child prostitutes. The lady had wonderful favor with the girls who had rejected all other pastors. However, the project has been shut down because the lady who was running it is sick and there was no one else to take her place.
Instead, right now I’m getting to know the projects and vision of a mid-sized church here in Rio. I’m staying with the pastor’s family and getting to hear all their hopes and dreams for expanding ministries in the community here.
Right now, they have a house for women to come and recieve counseling, take art and pilates classes, and recieve beauty treatments. Many women come every day seeking help. They also are starting a project for the youth in the community. They have Christian Capoeira lessons right now, but are planning on also having Christian Jiu-jitsu, dance, and other vocational programs. Next year, they are planning to open up a daycare center, and some time in the future, they plan to open a sort of shelter for kids and youth to go for a few days or weeks to be safe from problems at home, or to get off the street, until a more permanent shelter is found for them.
The thing that is needed here is workers! I believe I will come back here for a longer time at some point, but for now, I am planning on returning to Curitiba in January to stay there and work there for a time.
I return to the US this weekend. Pray for safe travels! Thank you so much for all your support and prayers! You have no idea how much it means to recieve emails from you guys!
Deus abençoa
-Emily Bair
